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Topic: Phone Conference Etiquette (Read 5043 times)

I'm currently attending a training via a website and conference call where the organizers have repeatedly asked participants to mute their phones.

There is a participant that obviously has a cold and is coughing, sneezing, and hacking every 2 seconds. Obviously, Hacky has not muted her phone.

I know the organizers don't want to call Hacky out specifically (huge throat clearing just now), but would it be rude for me as a participant to say, Hey Hacky, I can't hear the presenters over you when you cough and sneeze and clear your throat. Can you please hit *6 to mute your phone?

I wonder if Hacky knows they mean her office phone that she/he is connected on and not her cell phone. Maybe it's because announcements have become so necessary in live performances, classrooms, theaters, etc. but "turn off or mute your phone" has become associated with eliminating the disruption of ringing phones. If someone made a general announcement on a conference call to please mute all phones, I wouldn't automatically assume they meant the speaker on the phone I'm connected with.

An email or IM would be a good idea but maybe be specific about the speaker, not the ringer.

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"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." — Douglas Adams

Is there an option in the conference call system for the leaders to mute all other lines? In know in ours a leader can enter *5 and it mutes all the other lines, anybody who needs to talk can unmute their line later. If there is an option like that, I'd suggest that to the leaders in case they don't know about it, as that avoids singling anybody out.

You've got to be kidding! People actually take their unmuted phone into the restroom on a BUSINESS conference call?! I cry for the future.

Heard a lady apparently giving a harangue about their poor performance to her whole store by conference call (we have retail operations training in our building) and then a flush the other day in our ladies room. I was appalled on so many levels.

Can you send out something with the conference call request? Like after the call in code, add that "*6" (or whatever) is for mute? I'm usually at work on conference calls, so we have a mute button on the phone. But if I'm at home, I don't have one, and I'm always worried the cats will suddenly start yowling while I'm on a call. (My tuxedo is fascinated by the whole "Mommy is working HERE during the day thing....) But I never remember what the heck the code is to mute!

We start the conference call by asking anyone not speaking to mute the phone. Then when it's obvious someone hasn't, we day "we can hear all the background noise, but not the presenters, please mute your phone." And then again "Hacky, we're having a hard time hearing the presenters, can you please mute your phone?"

OP here - I was not one of the organizers; I was there as a fellow trainee. I don't know if Hacky phoned in from home or not - didn't think of that - but the organizers asked in the beginning of the training to mute phones by using *6, there was a recorded reminder to mute your phone when you dialed in to the conference line, and in the training room chat section, two reminders to be kind to other participants to mute phone by using *6.

When Hacky kept going, the organizers kept chiming in and saying "mute your phones!" but they never called Hacky out directly. I don't know if they had the ability to see who Hacky was - I think not.

I was just wondering if I had gone into the general chat and said, "Whoever is coughing and sneezing, we can hear you - please mute your phone" if that would be rude.

I don't think it would be but it's borderline. I find it rude that Hacky was hacking all over the place and all of the trainees had to put up with it.

OP here - I was not one of the organizers; I was there as a fellow trainee. I don't know if Hacky phoned in from home or not - didn't think of that - but the organizers asked in the beginning of the training to mute phones by using *6, there was a recorded reminder to mute your phone when you dialed in to the conference line, and in the training room chat section, two reminders to be kind to other participants to mute phone by using *6.

Gotchas. Ours doesn't do that - we just get "Press star to hear a list of commands at any time." Well, if Mr. Idiot is howling at the top of his lungs, I'm not going to do that. Or remember to.

I don't think you could have called them out directly, but a "I'm having problems hearing, can everyone please mute?" would have worked.